Real estate entrepreneur, Olasijibomi Ogundele the Group Managing Director of Sujimoto Holdings has been detained by Operatives of the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) of the Nigerian police in Abuja over an alleged fraud involving $325,000 he received from a client.
The FCID launched an investigation into how Mr Ogundele’s real estate firm, Sujimoto Construction Limited, received $325,000 from a client for a real estate deal since November 2020 and failed to deliver on the project or refund the money.
The probe followed a petition to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of criminal investigations by a lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi of Law Corridor. According to the petition, ogundele, who is currently being probed by the police, obtained the sum of $325,000 from one Kabiru Garba Ibrahim on November 5, 2020 -being 50 per cent payment of the agreed sum of $650,000 for a property of one unit of 3-bedroomed flat located at an estate known as LeonardoBySujimoto Homes. But since 2020, Ibrahim neither got the property nor his money back from the company.
Reports say Ogundele was invited by the FCID in May 2024 after the petition was received but he never honoured the invitation. Rather than honouring police invitation, Ogundele filed a fundamental rights suit against the police, asking the court to stop the probe against his person and his firm. It required the intervention of an Assistant Commissioner of Police from the FCID for him to report at the FCID Abuja on Wednesday.
The spokesperson for the FCID, Funmi Eguaoje confirmed the development on Thursday. She said Ogundele was detained on Wednesday when he could not meet his bail conditions. She then confirmed that Ogundele was called in for an interview on Thursday and that he met the bail conditions Thursday night.
-additional information from Premium Times